Eric, Sarah, and the rest of the party are determined to do better on level one-two. Every action they make will affect level one-one for new players, so they strive to bring about positive changes.

Defeating a black dragon is their main quest, but the game quickly takes a dark turn. They learn of a monstrous plan by Magi Inyontoo and his Magictology crew to rid the game of all dwarves.

The risks that come with helping are great, but so are the rewards. As they journey and meet other player characters, they also hear more hints about escaping the game. Giving up is not an option.

Can this ever-changing group of adventurers make it to level one-three intact? Or will they finally find a way out of the game? Find out in this exciting second installment of the Tower of Gates LitRPG Series.

This is a full-length LitRPG novel with no cliffhanger. It is part of an ongoing series of connected LitRPG books.

My Opinion: 405 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

This story has some issues.

Book 1 got a score of 4 out of 10. The multi perspective narrative was messed up and every other small chapter switched points of views. The characters had foreknowledge they shouldn’t have had and a lot of the novel didn't seem to have a point.

The things I liked in book 1: A quest system that seemed to help the characters deal with their real life issues, detailed innovative action scenes.

Thankfully, the perspective issues from book one are gone. However, all the stuff I liked and saw potential from book 1 are gone too. The quest system feels bland and impersonal. Combat isn't bad but also feels more standard, no innovative tactics.

There’s almost no character development in book 2. At the end of the story, I know little more about who the characters are or why they do what they do, than I did at the beginning of the story. 95% of what I know about the three main characters comes from the opening section of book 1.

For anyone picking up book 2 without having read book 1, there’s no recap about who these people are, where they are, or the general situation about them being trapped in a game. Which makes it a bit confusing at first.

The story starts out with Eric, Sarah, Bernard, Evan, and Ewen starting on level 1-2, which is somehow in the far past of level 1-1 (time travel). There’s a lot of random stuff that happens on the novel but the gist of the story is that the bad guy is trying to create a game world with only the human race. He’s blocked the dwarves from this level by putting a dragon at the entrance, thus eliminating them in the future. The group has to defeat this dragon, free the dwarves trapped in the mine, and then they can travel to level 1-3.

By some unexplained means, Josh the third kid trapped in the game finds the group and joins them (21% mark). They also find the one and only dwarf not trapped who kits out the group with a bunch of magic items (30%). Then at the very end (90%) the thing with the dragon and dwarves gets resolved.

While the game mechanics in the story are solid. Just about everything else in the story feels random. There are a bunch of side quests and fights that feel like they were inserted as filler and don't have anything to do with the main story. The advancement of the story happens because of what the side characters do and not what the main character’s do. Giving an impression that they’re not important and are being led through the level. This is especially evident when they’re literally given a room full of magical items by a character they just met.

For those reasons and because of the evil betrayals at the end that make absolutely no sense, I just didn't enjoy the story.